Innovation & Entrepreneurship

WPI’s approach to innovation and entrepreneurship covers everything from idea to execution.

Our collaborative approach to project-based learning and using applied knowledge is embedded in everything we do across our campus—from coursework to informal pitch practice sessions. Our students learn how to think with an entrepreneurial spirit, even if they never plan to start a business.

At WPI, an emphasis on applied research means faculty and students engage in work that can translate into products, services, or other intellectual property. Our spaces offer areas where our students, faculty, alumni, and community and industry leaders can interact, learning from each other as they network. Students access our expertise to determine an idea’s viability, discover funding potential, and enter competitions and scholarships. We even arm them with the essential professional development skills like grant writing and business communication.

From start-up to exit strategy, an extensive network of experts and resources can help turn a spark of imagination into a marketable innovation. We take your ideas seriously.

Get in touch with I&E to let us know how we can help you. If you're a faculty member and need assistance promoting an event or using the right channels, let us know and we can help.

A Year in Innovation Launches

The opening of the Foisie Innovation Studio kicks off WPI's A Year in Innovation and fills the campus with exciting events, activities, lectures, and opportunities. Keep checking back to see what's new.

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WPI Surpasses Record for Student Patents and Licenses

WPI recently celebrated the most successful year to date for student patents and licenses. In a show of the strength of WPI's commitment to helping students change the world with their innovation and entrepreneurship, 42 students filed for patents and five licensed their patents. Read the Telegram & Gazette's coverage of how these students are taking their innovation to the next level.

An accompanying editorial highlighted “an expanding focus on innovation and entrepreneurship that has been part of the college’s DNA going back to its founding but which is reaching a new level under President Laurie Leshin.”

4X

national average for research universities' invention disclosures and licenses